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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The Unconvinced Jew

If you witnessed someone walking on water, consistently and visibly healing the sick, casting out demons, spontaneously creating bread and fish, turning water into wine, calming storms, killing trees with a glance, and raising the dead including himself--wouldn't you be convinced that the guy is the son of God? Even the most atheist of atheists would have to admit that is some pretty extraordinary evidence. It certainly meets my conversion standards.

Imagine if you were not only present, but you had a vested interest in believing this guy was the messiah. If he was one of your people and fulfilled the prophecy you've been staking your entire worldview on. Imagine you were a Jew in the presence of Jesus.

Yet, many Jews did not buy what Jesus was selling. Many did, sure, but considering the Moses-level miracles...why not all? Or at least 99%? If there is something I'm not getting about history, please let me know, but the way I see it, how am I supposed to accept claims two thousand years removed with here-say records when so many of the contemporary neighbors weren't impressed.

6 comments:

I think history will show us that Jesus was one of many charlatans and hucksters around at the time. They were all competing...his story won out in the end, but I suppose there was little evidence to support his claims over the claims of others at the time...at least, the Jews seemed to think so...

As someone who's regularly confronted with the shittiness of historical sources, I can testify to the fact that sources from even just a hundred years ago are often utterly atrocious. I don't think history will be able to show us much about Jesus that's conclusive any time soon.

What we need are time machines. That'll put this shit to bed once and for all.

Jesus was one of a large number of street-corner preachers whose cult posthumously draped the garments of Godhood over him. Most of the supposed miracles of Jesus were just "borrowed" from other mythologies, certainly there was nothing big and flashy and public that he did that drew in lots of followers. In fact, it's more likely that he never did anything remarkable, it all came down to the people who wrote his tale decades after his death, who filled in lots of non-existent details to make Jesus seem more exciting than he actually was. That's why the Jews didn't convert. There was nothing worthwhile at the time to convert to.